


the hour of separation

by random_chick



Series: an element calm and deep [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-06
Updated: 2013-11-06
Packaged: 2017-12-31 17:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 13,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1034312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/random_chick/pseuds/random_chick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eight months after being injured, Coulson has resumed his life. He's working again and he has a girlfriend, another SHIELD agent by the name of Anna Montrose. Everything is going well until Loki reappears and has a plan that none of them expects.</p><p>Loki kidnaps Agent Montrose, leaving SHIELD (well, all right, leaving Coulson) to call in Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton, the only agents he trusts to find the woman that is both friend and co-worker to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2013 marvel_bang @ LJ.
> 
> Art by LJ/AO3 user nickygabriel found [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1034131).

Anna Montrose had a dinner date. A dinner date that she was late for, as a matter of fact. She was only even remotely on time due to the fact that she’d brought her dress and shoes with her to change into; her work suit was haphazardly tossed in the backseat of her car now.

She hurried down the sidewalk, cursing the fact that the only parking she’d been able to find was four blocks away. She was so intent on getting to the restaurant that she didn’t notice the man in front of her until she ran right into him.

“Shit!” she said with a yelp and a sheepish look. “I’m sorry. I really wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

“Must be heading somewhere important,” the man said with a smile that struck Anna as oddly adorable and infectious. She returned the smile; she couldn’t help it.

“I’ve got a date,” she explained. “And I’m running ridiculously late for it thanks to a long day at work.” Hey, that much was safe to say -- and it was even true, too.

“Your boyfriend is a lucky man,” was the man’s reply as he gave Anna a subtle once-over. “You look beautiful in that dress.”

“Thank you,” Anna said, blushing slightly. “I really should be going, though. I don’t want to be even later than I already am.”

“Of course, of course,” the man said, stepping aside so Anna could pass.

She stepped past him and headed for the restaurant.

“Oh, and Anna?”

She froze; she hadn’t told him her name. She turned slowly. “Yes?”

“Tell your boyfriend something for me, would you?” The man’s smile turned sharp and cold. “He should have stayed dead after I ran him through.”

And then he was gone.

Anna spun around and bolted for the restaurant as fast as she could run.

 

Phil Coulson sat alone at the table, waiting patiently -- though with a little worry. Anna had sent him a text to let him know she was running late, but this was a bit beyond that. He’d picked his phone up from the table and was just about to text her again when he heard Anna breathlessly calling his name.

“Anna? What’s wrong?” Coulson asked, concern coloring his features as he stood, smoothly sliding his cell phone into the pocket of his suit coat.

“Loki,” Anna rasped, her breathing heavy. “He’s _here_ , Phil, he’s in town and he knows you’re alive. I don’t think he’s happy.”

Coulson gaped at her for a moment. “That shouldn’t be. That’s -- ”

“Impossible?” Anna quirked a breathless, mirthless smile. “I know. But he is. Ran into him about a block away. Talked to him for a minute without realizing who he was --” Which wasn’t all that much of a surprise because she’d never met Loki before and she had no reason to go into the file SHIELD kept on him. “ -- and he’s got a message for you.”

“What is it?” Coulson asked, not so sure he wanted to hear it.

“He said, ‘He should have stayed dead after I ran him through.’” She forced a laugh that was a little too manic for Coulson’s liking. “We have to tell Fury, Phil. Now.”

Coulson let out a barely perceptible sigh. He knew she was right, but there was a small part of him that really, really hated that their evening was over before it’d even started.

“Let’s go,” he said. “We’ll send someone to bring your car back to SHIELD.”

Anna just nodded slightly.

Coulson wrapped an arm around Anna’s shoulders as they headed for the door and the parking lot. “It’s going to be all right,” he murmured.

“Don’t say that, Phil,” she replied, her voice quiet. “It’s Loki. He doesn’t get up to anything simple, which means his message to you is only the absolute start of something, not the entirety of a plan.”

Coulson hated to admit it, but she was right.

 

Twenty minutes later, they were outside Fury’s office. Coulson squeezed Anna’s hand lightly before reaching out to knock -- he knew Fury would still be in.

“Come in,” Fury called.

Coulson let them in. “Agent Montrose and I need to speak with you, sir,” he began. “It seems we have a... problem.”

“What kind of problem?” Fury asked, looking from Coulson to Anna.

“A Loki problem, sir,” Anna said, resisting the urge to reach out and cling to Coulson’s hand.

Fury arched an eyebrow. “Go on.”

“I was running late for dinner and was walking quickly down the sidewalk -- I had to park several blocks away from the restaurant. I ran into someone. An extremely well-dressed man. We chatted for a moment and I was about to leave when he said something that clued me in as to his identity.”

“What did he say, Agent Montrose?”

“He said, ‘Tell your boyfriend something for me, would you? He should have stayed dead after I ran him through.’”

Fury took a moment to process that. He hadn’t been aware of Coulson’s involvement with anyone, and he’d been keeping a close watch on the man since his return to active duty. He supposed it was a good thing, though. Agent Montrose was a good woman, a solid agent. The kind of woman who’d be good for Coulson.

“We’re going to take care of this,” he said simply.

“Are we going to need to call in the team?” Coulson asked, not entirely sure he wanted to know the answer.

“It’s quite possible, yes,” Fury replied. “First things first, we’re going to send a team to check out the area.”

“We’ll never find him that way -- he’s already long gone,” Anna said, biting the inside of her cheek.

“It’s still a start,” Fury said simply. “We may not be able to catch up to him in time, but we _will_ track him down. And we _will_ be able to take him down.”

Somehow, Anna doubted it would be quite as simple as that.


	2. Chapter 2

Fifteen minutes later, Fury had sent out the street team; Anna had wandered off somewhere and Coulson didn’t know where. That worried him just the slightest bit; he didn’t think she’d wandered off because she had work to do.

He found her in a momentarily empty office. “I’m pretty sure the occupants of the office might object to you just randomly being in here,” he said gently.

“One of them’s a former partner of mine,” Anna said, standing by the window and looking out though she wasn’t really seeing anything. “He won’t care as long as I don’t take anything.”

And she wasn’t going to. She’d just needed somewhere to get away, to try and calm herself down. She had the growing feeling that she was half a dozen breaths away from a good old-fashioned panic attack. She couldn’t do that, not when there was work to be done. She could fall apart later.

“Fury said for the both of us to go home,” Coulson said, his voice still gentle. “He’s assigning a security detail to me; they’ll give you a ride home, too, if I insist.”

“I don’t want to be separated from you right now, Phil,” Anna said, turning to look at him. “If something happens to you, I want to know. I want to be there.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to me,” Coulson assured her, reaching out to cup her cheek gently. “I promise.”

It was a promise he couldn’t keep, though, and they both knew it.

“I don’t want to lose you,” Anna said, turning her face towards his touch. “I know it’s only been a couple months, but... I care about you a great deal.”

“I care about you, too,” Coulson replied. “And that’s why I think it _would_ be a better idea for you to stay with me, at least for a while. Until we know for certain what’s going on.”

“It isn’t that I don’t trust the security detail,” Anna explained, wrapping her arms around Coulson’s neck. “It’s just that... Oh, hell, I can’t explain it.”

Rather, she could but she didn’t want to seem any needier than she already did. And she knew it wouldn’t make sense -- it barely made sense to _her_.

“So you’ll come home with me and we’ll worry about explaining things some other time, then,” Coulson said, slipping an arm around Anna’s waist.

She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him gently, though with a growing desperation. It wasn’t something she could help, not really, not when she stopped to think about how she’d almost never gotten a chance to know him in the first place.

Coulson stifled a whimper and let the kiss deepen for a moment before pulling back, albeit reluctantly. “Continue this at home?”

Anna gave him a shaky but real smile. “Don’t tempt me, Agent Coulson.”

 

Loki paced the office of the empty warehouse he’d appropriated for a base of operations. When he’d found out Coulson was alive, he had been... less than pleased, to put it mildly. Coulson hadn’t been a part of his original plan with the Chitauri, but he’d killed the man and he preferred it when his victims stayed dead. So naturally he wanted to take care of the problem, enough so that he’d found a way to make an escape from Asgard and return to Midgard.

Finding out that Coulson was involved with someone had been... interesting. And useful, for it’d given him an idea. But first, he wanted to meet her, to make sure his newest plan was going to work, to make sure that she meant enough to Coulson.

And as soon as he’d met her, he was positive. Agent Anna Montrose would be the perfect victim, the perfect prey. She was smart and beautiful and just the slightest bit shy and the perfect woman for Coulson, Loki figured. Which meant the perfect thing to hurt the formerly dead man with.

He broke into a slow grin. This was going to be _fun_.


	3. Chapter 3

Anna had never been to Coulson’s apartment; she was just slightly twitchy as they settled in; Coulson shut the door behind them after saying good night to the security agent that’d walked them up to the door.

“What’s wrong, Anna?” Coulson asked, tilting his head curiously.

“It’s nothing,” Anna said with a sheepish smile. “It’s just... I know I wanted to be here with you, but it’s a little... more than our relationship has been up to this point. I’m really awkward with relationships as is.”

“You’ve done just fine so far,” Coulson said reassuringly as he reached out to pull Anna in for a hug. “It’s been a good thing between the two of us. Slow and at our own speed. That’s the important part.”

“And it’s what you needed,” Anna said, relaxing into Coulson’s arms. “I mean, after what happened to you, the last thing you needed was _anything_ moving too fast.”

“You’ve been so concerned about me,” Coulson said, pressing a kiss to the corner of Anna’s mouth. “You need to worry about yourself a little, too.”

“I will,” Anna promised. “After all this is over and Loki’s out of the equation, I’ll take a little me time.”

“Good.” He hugged her and sighed. “I have to admit, I wish you weren’t involved.”

“What do you mean?” Anna pulled back slightly to look at him.

“I wish you weren’t here to be at risk.” Coulson looked as though he were considering something for a second before saying, “I want you to get out of town until Loki’s gone.”

“I’m not abandoning you, Phil!” Anna’s voice rose in surprise. “I can’t do much to help you, but I can be here with you. And face it, if Loki decides he wants anything to do with me, it won’t matter where I go. He’d find a way to find me anyway.”

Coulson couldn’t argue that, as much as he wanted to.

“You need as much support as you can get right now, anyway,” Anna pointed out. “Your friends are largely, well, you don’t have many friends. And the ones you do have are out of town. Which, you’ll probably want to recall Agents Barton and Romanoff on your own assuming Fury gives the okay, because if they find out that you went through something without them, they’ll be pissed. And you don’t want Agent Romanoff pissed.” She knew the woman’s history -- or parts of it, what bits had intersected with the agents under her own supervision in the past couple of years. She herself was a bit young to be a supervisory agent, but she’d proved a remarkable capacity for it and was working her way up the ladder.

“No, we definitely don’t.” Coulson chuckled softly. “She’s... not someone you ever want mad at you. Nor is Barton, really.”

Anna sighed and settled into Coulson’s embrace again. “I’m scared for you, Phil. Really scared.”

“It’s going to be okay,” Coulson soothed again. “I don’t know how, but it will be.”

“How can you be so concerned about me when you’re the one in danger?” Anna asked softly.

“Because I -- “

“Oh, I think I know what he’s going to say to you and it’s so sweet,” came the mocking drawl.

Coulson shoved Anna behind him and turned. “Loki. How’d you get in here?”

“Hello? Trickster god. Breaking and entering is just one of my many talents.” Loki smirked. “Though nothing’s actually broken, so does it really count as breaking and entering?”

“Get out,” Coulson said, still keeping Anna firmly behind him. “Now.”

“Oh, Agent Coulson.” Loki looked at the man almost pityingly. “Did you really think it’d be that easy?”

“No, but you can’t blame a man for trying.”

“Phil, don’t antagonize him,” Anna hissed. “He’s crazy, you know that.”

“He thinks that if he pulls all the attention onto himself, he can keep me from noticing that you’re cowering behind him.” Loki smirked again. “He’d be wrong, I’m afraid.”

“I’m not cowering,” was Anna’s contribution, her own antagonism. “I’m hiding from the crazy god.”

“And doing a poor job of it, at that,” Loki said almost conversationally. He strode closer, pushing Coulson aside and knocking him to the floor. He grabbed Anna by the arm.

“Let go, you crazy bastard.” And that would be when Anna kicked Loki in the kneecap. Not very effective, and incredibly childish, but it was what she could manage in the face of his iron grip.

Loki’s response was to pull Anna towards him and simply disappear in the blink of an eye.

Coulson had hit his head on the coffee table when he fell; he lay there in a daze for a moment, but not so much of one that he didn’t realize exactly what’d just happened. He dug his cell phone out and made the call he’d never wanted to make.

And only then did he allow himself to be upset, to pace the floor restlessly and rant to himself and blame himself.

Only then did he allow himself to be afraid.


	4. Chapter 4

Less than ten minutes later, Coulson had a small team of SHIELD agents investigating his neighborhood. Not that it would do any good, he was sure Loki was long gone from the area, but it was protocol.

He sat on the couch, giving the medic bandaging his head an irritable look. “I’m _fine_ ,” he snapped. “Really.”

“Don’t argue, Coulson,” came a sharp female voice.

“Hello, Maria,” he said, turning his head slightly to look at her and earning himself a grumble from the medic. “What brings you here?”

“Fury wanted me here,” Maria Hill said simply. “So here I am.”

Coulson just nodded. “Going to make me retell the story?” he asked. “Because I just finished giving my report.”

“No,” Hill said, perching next to Coulson on the couch awkwardly. “Not yet, anyway. He just wants me to supervise, given that it’s a Loki situation.”

Coulson nodded. Made sense, he supposed. Or he thought it did, at any rate. But that could be the mild concussion and the bleeding head wound talking. He didn’t know and couldn’t bring himself to care.

“How are you holding up?” Hill asked after a moment and once the medic had finished up and moved on.

“As well as can be expected,” Coulson replied.

“We’re not going to let him win,” she said. “And Agent Montrose is a good agent. She’s solid. She’ll be able to take care of herself.”

“That all depends on what Loki does to her,” Coulson replied. “He’s creative.”

“And she’s got something to fight for,” Hill said, resting a hand on Coulson’s hand reassuringly for a moment. “She’s got you.”

Coulson lifted his head and looked at Hill. “I should have protected her,” he said, his voice quiet and a little shaky, though he tried hiding that. “I should have kept him from getting her.”

“You couldn’t have,” Hill said bluntly. “It’s Loki. He’d have found a way to get around you no matter what.”

“But I should have tried harder,” Coulson protested. “I just let it happen.”

“You got a concussion and a bleeding head wound for your efforts,” Hill pointed out tartly. “You didn’t just let it happen. You kept yourself between the two of them, and that’s really all you _could_ do.”

Coulson just sighed and buried his face in his hands. “This is all so surreal,” he said, his voice muffled.

“I know,” Hill said, patting his shoulder before pulling her hand back. “Our lives are as a rule; this is even moreso. But you have to remember that above all else, we’re fighters. Nobody’s going to let Loki get away with kidnapping a SHIELD agent.”

“He’s got her because of me,” Coulson said, looking up. “Not because I couldn’t keep her safe. Not that. But because he’s trying to get to me, I just know it. I mean, why else would he want Anna?”

Hill was silent for a long moment. She couldn’t think of any other possible reason, so she wasn’t going to lie to Coulson, but she also wasn’t eager to discourage a man she actually rather respected. “I think you might be right,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean yet that you actually _are_ right. Until we know more, there’s no use beating yourself up over this. Just do what you can to help the investigation.”

Coulson nodded. “You’re right. Of course, you’re right. It’s just… hard, Maria. She and I haven’t been involved long, but it’s been long enough for me to have definite feelings for her. I just haven’t exactly put them into words yet. Maybe I should have. So she would have known, just in case…” He shook his head. “No. I refuse to believe the worst of the situation just yet.”

Hill could understand the sentiment behind the man’s words, though. “You’ll get your chance to put feelings into words,” she said. “I can’t promise when or how, but you’ll get your chance.”

She just hoped that it was sooner rather than later.


	5. Chapter 5

Anna had the good sense not to struggle as Loki marched her through the abandoned warehouse, it being the good sense simply because she didn’t know where she was and if by some unfathomable miracle she managed to get away, she had no way to get word to the others that she was alright.

When he shoved her into what she took for an interior office or what used to be one, Anna kept her mouth shut. She wasn’t going to fight, wasn’t going to give him any incentive to hurt her. And she had no delusions that he _wouldn’t_ hurt her if he felt like it. He was more than a little crazy, after all. She was erring on the side of caution.

But as the door slammed shut, she forced herself to take stock of the room. She wasn’t going to fight and she wasn’t going to give Loki any trouble, but she’d be damned if she wasn’t going to arm herself with every bit of information she possibly could. It was just the smart thing to do.

So she stood in the center of the room and turned in a slow circle, making note of anything that she thought could be important. Unfortunately, that wasn’t much. Small room, no windows, nothing in the room aside from what appeared to be a pile of blankets or a sleeping bag or something. Didn’t look like it’d been put there recently, though, so she knew it wasn’t Loki’s doing. She would, however, take full advantage of it if she got tired enough to sleep -- and she knew she would at some point, but she’d be damned if she slept before she was ready to drop.

Which, given the stress and adrenaline rush of the day, was entirely likely to be sometime within the next couple hours at best.

She raked her fingers through her hair and moved to sit on the floor, in the corner that ensured she could see every part of the room easily -- especially the door. She wasn’t going to be terribly comfortable on the floor, but comfort was her last concern at the moment.

Anna’s biggest concern wasn’t even for herself, though some people would probably argue that it should have been.

No, her biggest concern was for Coulson.

She’d seen him hit the coffee table and then the floor a second after; she hoped he was alright, that he wasn’t seriously hurt. If he was and she found out, she would make Loki pay. You didn’t hurt Anna Montrose’s loved ones and get away with it.

Not that she was entirely sure when Coulson had made the transition from friend to loved one, but he had and she would protect his position in her life with all the ferocity she had in her.

Which admittedly wasn’t always much. She wasn’t always the bravest person in the room, but she’d never run from a fight and she’d always protect the people she cared about -- and the agents she handled. They were her people, too, in a way that only made sense to another agent. It was one of the things that had helped her and Coulson bond at the start of things.

She smiled faintly as she thought of Coulson. “God, Phil,” she murmured. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

 

Coulson didn’t like the agents invading his life, his apartment, but he dealt with it because what else could he do? Even so, he was relieved when his apartment was once more clear -- save for the member of his security detail who’d been moved inside -- and he could be alone with his thoughts.

His thoughts were of Anna, yes, but not just of the situation she might be in. He was also thinking of how to get her _out_ of the situation she was in. And quite frankly, he wouldn’t trust just anybody to the mission. He knew who he wanted assigned to it, but that would require convincing Fury.

And _that_ was a battle he was willing to fight, though. Right after he pulled himself together just a little bit more.

He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. He looked older than his years, pale and terrified, and very much as though he felt like throwing up. Which he _did_ feel like, actually. He felt like vomiting and then literally passing out on his bathroom floor, but he could only do one of those things. And so he crouched by the toilet as the nausea hit again, vomiting three times in quick succession. That worried him -- he knew repeated vomiting wasn’t a good sign -- but when he was able to stay crouched for a few minutes without anything else happening, he pushed it into the “worry about it later” category.

Coulson glanced into the mirror once more, studying his reflection more seriously. He looked like crap, true, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him from doing anything. It just meant that he was going to end up _feeling_ like crap after a while.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to actually see Fury to have the conversation he needed to have with the man. That was just about the only thing that kept Coulson from not falling apart as he left the bathroom and made his way back to the living room. His cell phone had gotten dumped on a side table at some point, he wasn’t sure when, and it took him a minute to find it.

Once he’d found the phone, Coulson collapsed onto the couch and dialed a number he rarely needed but still knew by heart.

“It’s Coulson,” he said as soon as Fury answered. “I need to talk to you.”

“What is it?” Fury asked.

“The agents assigned to tracking down Agent Montrose… to tracking down Anna… has the team been selected yet?”

“Not yet,” came the reply.

“I want Barton and Romanoff on it,” Coulson said.

“They’re both busy.”

“No, sir, they’re actually not,” Coulson said. “Barton’s traveling somewhere out west and Romanoff’s in… Texas, I believe. Just wrapped up an operation. We call them, they can be here…” He glanced at his watch. “Well, by noon, at any rate.” Which was twelve hours from then, something Coulson wasn’t at all pleased with but knew couldn’t be avoided.

“Why them?” Fury asked. “Why them and not any other pair of agents?”

“Because they’re two of the best we’ve got and I’m sorry, sir -- wait, no, I’m not -- but I want the best possible agents on this assignment. Agent Montrose deserves nothing less.” Coulson was loathe to bring sentiment into it, because this was Nick Fury and sentiment didn’t always work on him, hardly ever worked on him, but if Coulson needed to then he’d get as sentimental as he had to.

“I shouldn’t be letting you make any decisions about this, Agent Coulson,” Fury rumbled. “You’re not the agent in charge.”

“There _is_ no agent in charge right now, sir,” Coulson pointed out. “There’s nothing wrong with my recommending an agent -- or a pair of agents -- for this assignment. There’s even nothing wrong with me strongly requesting them.” Beyond that, the ground was murky. Well, not so much murky as “just don’t even go there”.

“True enough,” Fury allowed. “And since you’re not asking for yourself to be placed as agent in charge -- don’t even think it, Coulson, the answer to that is an emphatic ‘not a snowball’s chance in hell’ -- I suppose there’s nothing wrong with your recommendations being considered and given priority.”

Coulson resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Sir? Can I make the calls?” Alright, so _that_ was a bit of an indulgence, but he was reasonably sure he’d get permission.

“Do it,” Fury replied.

“Thank you, sir.”

“And Coulson?”

“Yes, sir?”

“We’ll find her.”


	6. Chapter 6

Natasha Romanoff was sprawled out in her hotel bed and enjoying a moment of very much unlike her usual self glee at being in an actual bed again, never mind that it wasn’t the most comfortable bed she’d ever slept on. That didn’t matter at the moment. What mattered was that her operation was done and she could proceed to sleep for something like a week. As much as she enjoyed her job -- or at least the using her skills for good -- it was always really damn nice when a job was over and she could relax. Most people were surprised that she liked to relax, but really, why shouldn’t she?

Her cell phone rang, disrupting the silence. She let out a soft curse in Russian before answering. “Romanoff.”

“Natasha, it’s Coulson.”

Natasha frowned and looked at the time. “Coulson, what’s wrong?”

“Agent Montrose was kidnapped a few hours ago.”

Natasha only barely knew Agent Montrose, but she knew that Coulson and the other woman had been friends. “By whom? And… she’s more than just Agent Montrose to you, isn’t she?” It was obvious in Coulson’s voice to anybody who knew him well enough.

“Loki, believe it or not. And yes. Yes, she is.”

Natasha swore again in Russian, this time a much more colorful expletive. “How is that even possible, the Loki being here?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but he is and I’m reasonably certain he’s after me.” Coulson sighed. “Fury’s letting me bring you and Clint in on this.”

“I’ll call Clint,” Natasha said. “We’ll fly out as soon as we can.” Because she wasn’t going to _not_ take this assignment, and she certainly wasn’t going to leave Coulson to hurt by himself.

“Natasha? Thank you. For the coming out here, the calling Clint, all of it.”

“You’re welcome.” She hesitated. “Are _you_ alright?”

“Not really, no,” Coulson admitted. “I’ll give you most of the details once you’re here, but suffice it to say, I’ve got a concussion, I have stitches in my head, and I’m scared.”

“Go rest,” Natasha advised, her voice kind. “Until we get there, go rest. It sounds like you’ve had a long night.”

Coulson laughed bitterly. “You have no idea.”

They hung up a moment later; Natasha stared at her cell phone in disbelief, shaking her head before punching in Clint’s number.

“Barton.”

“Clint, we have a problem.” Which was understating it a little, she had a feeling, but as a conversational opener it worked well enough.

“Define problem,” Clint said, instantly on his guard.

“Agent Montrose was kidnapped this evening, apparently,” she said. “I just got the call from Coulson.”

“Why us? And why would Coulson call?” Clint wondered.

“Coulson trusts us,” Natasha said, as though it were the easiest thing in the world to see that. “And he called because they were friends. Friends and a bit more, judging by the tone in his voice.”

“I’ll book my flight as soon as I’m off the phone with you,” Clint said after a moment to consider the implications of Natasha’s words.

“I think things are about to get interesting,” Natasha said with a heavy sigh.

And in their line of work, interesting was rarely good.

 

Coulson had tried to sleep, really he had. But sleep had been elusive, never coming for more than forty-five minutes or so at a stretch. So when he finally just called it a day on the sleeping thing at about six in the morning, he was possibly more tired than he’d started out. Not that he cared at the moment. His only concern was getting Anna back safely.

The first thing he did was to pad out to the living room and say good morning to the agent on his security detail. The second thing he did was to head for the bathroom and take a shower. It didn’t really do any good, save for waking him up a little, but oh, well.

Once in the bedroom again, he got dressed based solely on what he could reach without exacerbating his chest injury. The few months he’d had to heal had been more than enough so that he could return to active duty, true, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have days where it hurt anyway.

Today was very much one of them.

Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, Coulson padded barefoot out to the kitchen and got a pot of coffee going. He needed the caffeine, badly. Well, what he actually needed was a caffeine IV drip, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen.

He popped his head back out into the living room. “Want some coffee?” He didn’t expect the agent to say yes, but he had to offer.

“No, thank you,” came the reply.

Ah, well, he’d tried. Coulson ducked back into the kitchen, poured himself a cup of coffee, and proceeded to spend entirely too much time staring down into it as he held it, mindless of the heat against his hands.

He was terrified that they would never get Anna back. Of course, he was doing his best to be strong but that was easier said than done when the person missing had such a personal connection to him. And it _was_ a personal connection. They hadn’t been together long, but their relationship had deepened quickly. She meant more to him than he’d realized until she’d been taken, and the kicker was he hadn’t even told her about how he felt before she was taken.

Coulson knew he should have told her. But he’d been stupid. He’d thought he would have time to tell her later. Then things had happened and now there was the possibility he might never get the chance. Of course, he was fully aware that at this point it was only a possibility, but he was afraid nonetheless.

He’d lucked out when he met her, he knew that.

Now he needed to luck out again and find her.


	7. Chapter 7

Anna woke up in the corner, her head on her arm. She’d wound up crashing in her corner, without the meager pile of softness from the other side of the room. So it was really no wonder that she was stiff as she moved. Absolutely no wonder at all. She wasn’t at all thrilled that she’d fallen asleep -- it would’ve given Loki the perfect opportunity to catch her when her guard was down, but he hadn’t touched her.

He was, however, sitting up against a wall, legs stretched out in front of him casually as he watched her.

“You’re awake,” he said, his voice a smooth purr. “I was wondering when you’d wake. You fell asleep shortly after two in the morning.”

“What time is it now, then?” she asked automatically, mentally kicking herself after the fact for talking to him.

“Shortly before eight.” Loki studied her thoughtfully. “You’re adorable when you’re rumpled. Has the good Agent Coulson had the opportunity to tell you that yet?”

“It’s none of your business what he has or hasn’t had the opportunity to tell me yet,” Anna said archly. “Our relationship is our business, not yours.”

“True enough,” Loki agreed because really, the mortal woman had a good enough point. “But you’re my captive now, which makes your life my business. Still, though, I see no reason to be unduly harsh to you -- just yet, anyways. So a little polite conversation it is.”

“Not that I’ll answer you,” Anna said stubbornly.

“Oh, you will,” Loki said confidently. “You will.”

“And how do you know that?” Anna challenged.

“Because if you don’t, then I’ll hurt Agent Coulson even more when I finally get a hold of him.”

Anna paled slightly. The matter-of-fact way Loki had said that inspired absolutely no confidence in her whatsoever. “Leave Phil alone,” she said softly.

“So he’s Phil to you, hm?” Loki tilted his head thoughtfully. “When did that happen, I wonder?”

Anna’s jaw tightened and for a moment she said nothing.

“Remember what I said,” Loki warned mildly. “My words were not idle ones.”

Anna nodded shortly, sharply. She had to stop and think about it, actually. When _had_ he become “Phil” to her and not simply “Agent Coulson”? Once they’d started dating, quite obviously, but when exactly?

“It’s been eight months since the incident,” she began after a moment.

“After I ran him through, you mean.” Loki smiled faintly, almost as though he were enjoying the memory.

“Yes.” Anna refused to acknowledge him beyond that. “He was hospitalized for three months. We met shortly after that, but didn’t start dating until three months after _that_.”

“So you’ve only been dating for two months,” Loki figured out quickly.

Anna nodded slightly. “Yes.”

“It doesn’t answer my question, as fascinating as it might be.”

“I’m getting there,” Anna said. “Anyway, it was… our first date, I’d have to say. A complete, unmitigated _disaster_. One of my agents wound up getting sent on a short notice op and I had to be on the other end of the comms for them. Wouldn’t have been a problem if Phil and I hadn’t been in the middle of ordering dinner at a restaurant when it happened.”

“Rough,” Loki said, almost sympathizing -- but not quite.

Anna refused to take it for sympathy. “So we went back to SHIELD headquarters. I did my thing, coordinated what I had to coordinate, and Phil took care of some paperwork while he waited. I finished up around midnight and went to meet him in his office.” She couldn’t help the fond smile on her face. “And he had takeout waiting. Never mind that it was cold Chinese food, at that point I was so hungry I didn’t care.”

“Sweet gesture,” Loki said.

“I thought so,” Anna said. “And I saw him sitting at his desk, looking up at me and there was this flash of uncertainty on his face, like he thought maybe he’d made the wrong move or something. That… that was when he became Phil, not just Agent Coulson.”

“You saw his human side,” Loki said almost thoughtfully.

“I did. He wasn’t just another agent in a suit anymore, he was a _friend_. And more.”

“How sweet,” Loki said dryly.

Anna figured it was best not to mention that she was also pretty sure that was the moment where she’d fallen in love with Coulson. Loki would likely just mock her for that, too, and she wasn’t in the mood for it.

“You wanted an answer,” Anna said. “I gave you one. I never said it would be up to your lofty standards.”

“What happened to the meek woman who didn’t want to antagonize the crazy god?” Loki asked. “Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe I rather prefer this version of you, but I’m just curious.”

“The meek woman got kidnapped and hidden away,” Anna said. “She’s tired and hungry and cranky and pissed the hell off.”

He laughed. “Oh, you _are_ fun. Dare I say, entertaining.”

“I don’t care what you dare say as long as you dare say it in another room,” Anna said, suddenly fed up and done with Loki and his talking. “I’d like to go back to sleep.”

She didn’t want to go back to sleep, not really, but she needed to say something to possibly get him away from her for a little while. What she really wanted was fifteen minutes -- or less, she wouldn’t be greedy at this point -- where she could just fall apart and freak out before pulling herself back together to become the reasonably strong woman she generally was.

Loki, however, didn’t seem terribly inclined to listen to her -- not that she’d seriously expected him to. It’d been worth a try, she figured. And if it helped him underestimate her, all the better.


	8. Chapter 8

Clint and Natasha had both landed shortly before noon and were at SHIELD headquarters not long thereafter, thanks to meeting up after their flights and Natasha breaking half a dozen traffic laws minimum on the way there. The woman drove like a speed demon when the need pushed her, and for Coulson? It pushed her hard.

They sat in the briefing room, waiting. They didn’t have to wait long, however, for Fury to enter the room with Hill at his side and Coulson following behind them -- still in the jeans and t-shirt he’d put on that morning. He hadn’t been able to muster the give a damn for anything more professional.

Clint didn’t blame him, really. What Coulson was going through right then had to be his own private nightmare. Professionalism was probably the last thing on his mind.

“So, what’s going on?” Natasha asked, cutting right to the chase.

Coulson smiled tiredly as he took a seat. “Agent Montrose has been kidnapped, as I told you.”

“Give me the details,” Natasha said. “Tell me what you know. Start from the beginning.”

Coulson sighed, closed his eyes, thought for a moment to put things in order. He opened his eyes and began to speak. “Agent Montrose… Anna… and I had a date last night. I was waiting at the restaurant, she was running late. On her way there, she was approached by someone. A man, with a message for her.”

“What was the message?” Clint asked, frowning thoughtfully.

“It was, ‘He should have stayed dead after I ran him through.’” Coulson met Clint’s gaze evenly, knowing the other man would put two and two together easily.

It took Clint a moment, but he did the math and definitely came up with four. “Are you seriously telling me Loki’s back?” he asked, his voice not quite an undignified yelp of surprise.

“He is,” Coulson confirmed.

“How is that possible?” Natasha asked.

“I don’t know,” Coulson said honestly. “I don’t know and until we find him, I don’t think we’re going to find out.”

“That’s the least of our worries at the moment,” Fury said, sitting back in his seat and watching them.

“Okay, okay…” Natasha lifted her hand and shook her head, trying to make things make sense. “So she ran into him and he gave her that message. What then?”

“She got to the restaurant, told me what’d happened,” Coulson said. “We left the restaurant and went back to headquarters. Briefed Director Fury. I had a security detail assigned to me and I went home. Anna came with me. We were talking and Loki just showed up in the apartment.” Coulson swallowed, willing his voice not to shake. “He took her. He just took her. Shoved me aside, knocked me down, and took her.”

Clint knew what it was to feel as though you were standing by and doing nothing -- it was how he’d felt under Loki’s control, during those brief seconds when he’d been anything other than shoved to the back of his own brain. He’d never been in control, but his true self had surfaced enough. “We’ll do this, Coulson,” he said. “Tash and I, we’re good. We’ll find him.”

“What he said,” Natasha echoed. “It might not be easy, but we’ll do it.”

Coulson could almost believe them.


	9. Chapter 9

Anna paced the room restlessly, like a caged tiger. Complete with having snarled at Loki when he brought her something to eat. Everything in her had told her not to eat it, but she’d had to remind herself that A: she was starving and B: this was Loki. Poisoning her wasn’t his style. It wouldn’t achieve a damn thing.

And so she’d eaten quickly, gratefully. Praying she hadn’t been wrong.

Twenty minutes after she’d eaten, though, she felt fine. So she’d quite likely been right, which had been enough to start her with the pacing again.

And the worrying. Couldn’t forget the worrying. Not for herself, but for Coulson and the situation as a whole.

She hated that she’d told Loki anything. Not that she’d told him anything particularly damaging, but she hated that he knew about a moment between herself and Coulson that had been a private moment, something small and intimate and memorable -- and that was now open to criticism, to mockery, to being turned around and used against her and Coulson.

And she’d be absolutely damned if she let Loki -- or anyone else, for that matter -- hurt Coulson. He was hers, in some nebulous fashion, and she took care of what was hers to the damn level best of her ability. If anything happened, it would _not_ be because she had failed.

“Oh, don’t you look determined,” Loki drawled as he walked into the room. “You’re really quite adorable when you’re trying to be the big bad responsible SHIELD agent.”

“I _am_ a responsible SHIELD agent,” Anna replied, wishing she could give in to the urge to throw something at Loki’s head. The only reason she couldn’t was because there wasn’t anything in the room _to_ use.

“You’re doing quite the job of proving that right now,” Loki said, and it wasn’t easily recognizable whether he was taunting her or not.

“Of course I am,” Anna said, electing to think he wasn’t taunting her for the moment.

“You’re young for your position, aren’t you?” Loki asked.

“Yes, though not impossibly so,” Anna replied. “And I’m old enough to know better than to talk to strangers.”

“If that were true, you wouldn’t have interacted with me yesterday on the street,” Loki pointed out.

“I was also raised to be polite,” Anna responded. “And face it, an attractive stranger complimenting a woman is much more likely to get a favorable reaction than if he’s antagonizing her on the street.” She arched an eyebrow. “That’s why you did it that way, isn’t it? To throw us off-guard, to ensure that I would stop and talk to you. To keep things going to way you want, basically.”

“Pretty much,” Loki said frankly. “I have a very specific plan, Agent Montrose, and I need things to go a certain way. I will do whatever I have to do in order to ensure that things turn out in my favor.”

“There’s only so much you can do to make sure things go your way,” Anna said. “Beyond that, it’s up to fate and chance.”

“And what if you’re fated to die here?” Loki asked. “What if you’re fated to die here, miserable and alone and without the man you love?”

Anna stiffened and Loki laughed.

“Oh, Agent Montrose,” he chided. “Hasn’t anyone ever taught you how not to react to what I believe you humans term as ‘a fishing expedition’? I had no idea that you loved the good Agent Coulson, but now that you’ve confirmed my blind assumption, I know better.”

“Fuck!”

“Oh, oh,” he chided again. “Such language from a lady is hardly appropriate.”

“I’m no lady,” Anna said.

“Good,” Loki said. “I have no use for ladies, those pathetic women who bow before the whims of what is popular. I like a woman with a good bit of fight in her.” It was why Sif had always been his favorite of his brother’s friends. Not that he’d necessarily _liked_ Sif, but she was the one he’d always been willing to put up with being around. Though Sif had loathed him, so there had been a minimum of them in the same room together.

“I’m _so_ thrilled to meet your approval,” Anna said dryly. “Now, can we get on with whatever it is you’ve got planned for me? I’m getting tired of this talking and Coulson doesn’t deserve to be kept worrying and waiting over a situation he does not know the details of.”

“Fair enough,” Loki said with a considering nod. “I can appreciate that you wish to get what will hardly be an enjoyable experience over with.”

“I don’t know if you’re going to talk me to death or torture me or what you’re going to do,” Anna said. “But whatever it is you’re going to do, it will not break me. You could never break me.”

They were brave words that she didn’t believe for a second. The only reason she even thought they might be true was the fact that she knew she would die before Loki would break her. Though if that would break his plans and keep him from doing whatever he had in mind, then death would be worth it.

Except then she wouldn’t have Phil, wouldn’t have at least a chance at being with him. She didn’t know how long their relationship would last -- people rarely knew that sort of thing -- but she felt with every fiber of her being that their relationship had potential, if only they got the chance to explore it.

Loki moved towards the door. “If I want to break you, I will.”


	10. Chapter 10

Coulson wasn’t sure what to do. He couldn’t work this case, which meant he was completely at odds with himself. And he knew that he couldn’t go home, couldn’t go back to his apartment and sit there and worry. Of course, he’d be worrying if he stayed at headquarters, but it somehow seemed less person and terrifying to worry at work. It made sense in his head, in a way he couldn’t articulate.

“Coulson,” came a voice.

Coulson stopped in his tracks. “Clint,” he said, vaguely surprised to see the man. “I thought you and Natasha were heading out to check around my apartment.”

“We are,” Clint said. “We’re leaving in a few. I just wanted to say something to you first.” He looked distinctly uncomfortable, though that was more the fact that he was still handling Natasha not telling him Loki was back -- though he understood why she hadn’t.

“What’s that?” Coulson didn’t like the look on Clint’s face.

“Anna’s going to be alright.” Clint gave as much of a reassuring smile as he could manage. “I mean, I was alright, after all. I know Loki can be… terrifying, but she’s going to be fine.”

“I know,” Coulson said, with more confidence than he actually felt. “I trust you and Natasha. I know it won’t be easy, but… I trust the two of you.”

“Thank you,” Clint said solemnly. “We won’t let you down.”

He just hoped his words weren’t going to end up a lie.

 

Anna was scared. Well, more like terrified, but “scared” worked well enough. Because really, what else was she supposed to feel after she’d been kidnapped and held captive? Pissed as hell, possibly, but that anger had faded in the face of the realization that she could very well be stuck there for God only knew how long -- and God certainly wasn’t planning on telling anyone. And she didn’t have the deal and cope to feel irritated at her inability to escape.

So yes. Scared it was.

The door opened and Anna did her best not to tense; no use giving Loki anything he could use against her. Then again, this was Loki. He was certainly more than intelligent enough to read her no matter what. It was like facing Fury, only with added batshit crazy.

“Hello, Anna,” Loki said smoothly. “You look… remarkably well put together, given everything you’ve been through. I applaud your resilience.”

“Yes, because your applause is something I so dearly crave,” Anna said, but there was no actual heat behind it.

Loki stifled a smile. “Rest assured, Anna. I suffer no delusions that you desire anything from me. That’s fine by me; it is I who desire something from you.”

“And what would that be?” Anna asked, looking at Loki with an apprehension on her face that she couldn’t entirely hide. After all, he’d said he could break her if he wanted to. This was no doubt the part where he started getting to that.

And she would be very much right.

Instead of answering her question, Loki simply shut the door behind him. “I’d like to tell you something first,” he said, moving towards her and crouching down in front of her, reaching out to tip her head up so he could meet her gaze. “This is nothing personal. You mean pretty much nothing to me in terms of who you are as a person.” He patted her cheek in a mockery of affection. “But in terms of what you represent to someone I’m not exactly happy with, you mean everything.”

She went cold. “I _told_ you to leave Coulson alone,” she hissed, every protective instinct rising.

“And I told you that if I wanted to break you, I could,” Loki replied, rising smoothly to his feet.

“So when are you going to get to it?” she asked. Not that she wanted to be broken, but neither did she want to be toyed with.

“Oh, I have all the time in the world,” Loki said with a grin. “You, however, likely do not. You’re only human after all. I imagine you’ll simply give out sooner or later.”

“I didn’t realize you were into physical torture,” Anna said.

“Oh, I’m not,” Loki said. “Not as a general rule. But I’m not afraid to remind you of just how frail and fragile you really and truly are, emotionally and psychologically speaking.”

“You know nothing of my emotional or psychological states.”

“No, but mortals are rarely a hardy bunch,” Loki said. “It would take surprisingly little to tear you down. I could rebuild you, if I wanted, but tearing you down is the part that serves my needs.”

“So just get to it already,” Anna said, running her fingers through her hair. “SHIELD provides excellent psychological counseling services; I can be patched back together.”

“It will always be that,” Loki said. “Patched. You will never again be whole. There will always be that part of you that worries. That fears there will be a day when it all falls apart and you’re right back in the reminders and the doubts and the being completely and utterly afraid.”

Anna cocked her head, trying for bravery and almost managing. “What are you possibly going to say that’s going to hurt me enough to break me?” she asked.

“Oh, I imagine it won’t be any one thing that does it,” Loki said, pacing the room leisurely as he spoke. “That would be weak, even for one of your race. And I know you’re not weak, though you’ll still be easy to break.”

“Try me,” Anna said tiredly.

“What makes you so special?” Loki asked. “What makes you so special that a man like Agent Coulson would want you?”

“You think I know?” Anna shrugged. “We clicked. I wonder myself what he sees in me.”

“Beyond your beauty, I imagine it’s your brain,” Loki said. “He strikes me as a man that could appreciate both aspects of a woman. But I doubt you’re enough.”

She boggled at him. “Bwuh?”

“So elegant,” he said dryly. “But really, you may or may not not be enough.

“Isn’t it up to Coulson to decide what’s enough for him?”

“Agent Coulson needs more than a junior agent who’s just barely dry behind the ears.”

“I’m old enough to be a handler,” Anna said archly. “I spent several years in the FBI before SHIELD recruited me. I know what I’m doing.”

“True enough,” Loki allowed. “SHIELD isn’t exactly known for hiring complete idiots. Ineffective, yes, but not complete idiots.”

“Thanks. I think.” Anna eyed him warily. “I’m still not following you on how this is going to break me.”

“All it takes to break someone is planting the seeds of doubt,” Loki said. “Put one or two thoughts in your head that you can’t stop thinking about, and my work is started with minimal fuss and virtually no effort.”

Anna didn’t like that part; it sounded entirely too reasonable to be wrong. “So where’s the part where you instill doubt in me?” she asked. “Or are you going to mock me a little more first?”

Loki chuckled. “Mockery’s entertaining for a time,” he allowed. “And I have a reasonable amount of it with you. All the same… think on this, Agent Montrose. Think on this. Maybe you’re enough, but… What if you’re _not_? What kind of man is Agent Coulson? A good one. Too good to break up with you easily. So he’ll stay with you for a while, looking for the right moment, the right opportunity. The chance to do it and let you down easily, gently, respectfully. Only there is little gentleness in breaking up with someone. One party always ends up hurting.”

He moved towards the door again. “Which party do you want to be, Agent Montrose? The hurt or the one who hurts?”

It wasn’t a thing Anna wanted to particularly think about.


	11. Chapter 11

Clint looked at Natasha. “So… how exactly _are_ we going to find her?” he asked. “If we can’t find Loki, then we can’t find her. And if we can’t find her, we let Coulson down -- something I promised him we wouldn’t do.”

“We’ll find her,” Natasha assured him. She tended not to make promises she couldn’t keep -- she felt breaking a promise made her indebted to someone and she loathed being indebted to anybody, even people she knew.

And Clint knew that. “Which means we’re going to have to really look,” he said.

“Exactly.” Natasha smiled evenly. “Loki might be able to hide from us for a while, but he won’t be able to hide from us forever. When he slips up, when he makes a mistake, _that’s_ when we’ll find him.”

“Or when he slips up and makes a mistake to draw us in,” Clint said. “Because this is Loki. He’s smart and he’s cunning. He’s easily capable of faking a mistake to pull us in.”

Natasha reluctantly admitted that Clint was right. “But even so, we can use that to our advantage,” she said. “Because that will let us find Agent Montrose.”

“But we can’t count solely on it happening,” Clint said.

“Of course not,” Natasha said, giving Clint a Look. “But it’s as solid a Plan B as we’ve got at the moment.”

She had a point. He nodded. “So until then, we… what?”

“Stop and think rationally,” Natasha said. “Loki’s got to be keeping Agent Montrose somewhere reasonably close by, even if for no other reason than he’d want to be close enough to gloat easily.”

Clint could see the logic in that. “So… empty buildings nearby, then.”

“Empty or abandoned, yeah,” Natasha said. “The entire building, too, not just part of it. Loki won’t want to share.”

“He’s a big fan of abandoned spaces,” Clint said dryly. “So I can safely say you’re right on that.”

“Which gives us something to start with,” Natasha said. “We need to get a list of every abandoned property in the city and then start narrowing it down.”

“Thank God we’re not just jumping straight in on the list and investigating every one,” Clint said. “That’d be too time-consuming and we run the risk of not finding her in time.”

“Exactly,” Natasha said with a nod.

As they walked, all Clint could think was that really, they had a pretty lousy Plan A. Their Plan B was more solid, which was saying something.

This really _wasn’t_ going to be easy. But he’d let people down enough, he wasn’t going to let Coulson down as well.

 

Coulson had given up on waiting around at SHIELD headquarters for any news -- it felt too much like lurking. So he’d found Maria and made her promise that someone would let him know as soon as they had any news.

He was pretty sure Maria had only agreed to get him to shut up and go home, but he’d take it.

Now he was at home, ignoring the security detail -- both the agent in his apartment and the two agents out in the hallway. And he knew there were others outside the building, too. But he was ignoring them as well. If Loki wanted to show up again, there was nothing that a handful of SHIELD agents could do to stop him.

Coulson almost hoped Loki _would_ show up. He had a few things he wanted to say to the god.

Because damn it, nobody kidnapped Phil Coulson’s girlfriend without getting an earful about it at the very least.

And then Coulson wondered when he’d started thinking of Anna as his girlfriend and not just as a woman he was dating. He couldn’t pinpoint it, exactly, though he could pinpoint other milestone events in their relationship. But thinking about it hurt too much.

Thinking was all he could do, though, and trying to think about anything else only brought his mind circling back around to the painful thoughts. So he sprawled out on his couch, gave in, and let the thoughts come.

First was the realization that Anna was his best friend. Outside of the romantic aspect of their relationship, she got him on a level that nobody else had recently. She understood him but she never pushed him for any information he wasn’t willing to give. He appreciated that about her, for one thing.

Second was the fact that he was pretty hopelessly in love with her. It was a strange feeling, for the simple fact that he hadn’t been this far gone on someone in a very long time. He didn’t mind it, exactly, he just didn’t _understand_ it. And Coulson was a pretty big fan of understanding things.

But he supposed that love was one of those things you couldn’t easily understand. So he just shoved those thoughts aside and compartmentalized, pushing them into a little mental box to deal with later.

It wasn’t that he was cold or unfeeling, it was just that it was _easier_. If Anna came home safely, they could deal with those feelings together -- assuming she returned them in any way, of course, and if she didn’t that was something else entirely to face.

And if she didn’t return home at all, well, then he could leave those feelings in that box and not hurt so badly as he might otherwise. Except he knew that those feelings would get out someday, would get out and prey on him and make him feel even worse for having not grieved for her.

But that assumed that they didn’t get her back, and that was something that Coulson just wasn’t willing to assume.

 

Anna hated herself a little at the moment; she’d started thinking about what Loki had said, as much as she’d been loathe to do it.

And as loathe as she was to admit it, he’d been accurate in his assessment. Coulson was a good man, the kind of man who wouldn’t want to hurt a woman when he broke up with her. So he probably _would_ wait for the right time and the right moment. Only, that wasn’t such a bad thing, was it? If things went badly between them and they split up, she’d appreciate that he gave her as much concern as he could. Well, she’d appreciate it after the fact.

The part where Loki was wrong, or so she felt, was the part where he’d asked if she wanted to be the one hurt or the one doing the hurting.

She wasn’t going to leave Coulson just to prevent something that _might_ happen. That would be an act of cowardice and while she knew she wasn’t the bravest person on the planet, she also wasn’t a damn coward.

More to the point, she just simply refused to do anything that would hurt the man she loved.

All the same, though, Loki had given her something to think about. How long would Coulson try to avoid hurting her before he gave in to the inevitability and hurt her anyway by leaving her?

Wait, why was she assuming he would do that in the first place? She shook her head to clear it. God, she was tired, so tired and so scared and so half a dozen other emotions, but mostly tired and scared. No wonder she was starting to give Loki’s words more weight than they deserved.

She stifled a yawn and forced herself to at least try thinking about it logically. If Coulson left her, he would be as gentle about it as he could be, yes. And yes, being left would hurt. It would hurt a lot. But she would get over the pain of it, if not over the breakup itself. She could live with being left, she decided after a moment.

It was the Coulson doing the leaving that would hurt her, not the being left.

But she would worry about that when she got the hell out of… well, wherever the hell she was. Because by God, there was little to no point in worrying about it when there was nothing she could do about it. Not that she could do anything about it in any case, she conceded, but she especially couldn’t do anything about it at the moment.

She put her head back and sighed. Thinking sucked, and there was nothing she could do at the moment _but_ think.

And pray she didn’t circle back around to the worry.


	12. Chapter 12

Clint and Natasha’s search of the area around Coulson’s apartment had turned up nothing, just as they’d both expected. But it had been a place to start, that much they could say. They were having more luck with their list of vacancies, however.

In the sense that they were coming up with said vacancies, that was, not in the sense of actually finding the missing agent or anything of the sort.

Clint scowled and looked at the printout Natasha held in her hand. “That’s freakin’ ridiculous, y’know that?” he said, gesturing to the paper.

“I know, it’s way too much,” Natasha said. “But we’ll narrow it down and maybe figure it out.”

“We can’t afford a ‘maybe’ on this, Tash.” Clint scowled again. “What we need to do is stop and think about this logically. Where would Loki be _most_ likely to be?”

“That’s the problem,” Natasha said. “He could be anywhere. Because the restaurant was a couple miles from here, so he could be anywhere between here and there and the surrounding area.”

“But even so…” Clint frowned, this time thoughtfully. “I think we can strike off anything that isn’t in a few-mile radius from this area. Loki would want to be close enough to easily gloat. I have no idea what his abilities really are, if he can teleport or what the fuck he can do, but I imagine a closer range would make things easier.”

Natasha nodded slightly. “I think so, too.” She glanced at the small sheaf of papers and shook her head. “I swear to God, Hill gave us this to screw with our heads,” she said. “We need to get the file on an actual computer before we can start narrowing anything down.”

“She probably did it to push us into working harder,” Clint said as they headed for the car. “I know she and Coulson are friends, as hard as it is to imagine her with friends.”

“If I imagined her with any friends, Coulson would be one of them,” Natasha said.

Clint just laughed and opened the driver’s side door. “So we’ll blame her in any case and move on from there.”

Natasha’s response was merely to nod in agreement and get in the car.

 

Loki was in a good mood, a very good mood indeed. And Loki in a good mood was something to be greatly feared.

She wasn’t collapsing as quickly as he’d hoped, but Agent Montrose was still being preyed on by her thoughts, he could tell that simply by peeking in on her -- and she hadn’t noticed him at the window in the door, hadn’t been _able_ to notice him at the window. So she hadn’t been able to hide herself from him.

He stood at the door, contemplating his next move. Did he go in and speak to her again? Did he leave things be? Did he go and taunt Coulson? Did he…

The options went on and on. And he knew well enough what he was going to do next, he supposed, but thinking on the matter never hurt. He hadn’t gotten where he was in life by being thoughtless and careless, after all.

He opened the door and entered the room. “You’re looking… less than cheerful,” he remarked. “Been thinking a bit too much, I suppose.”

“Not that you really have any business knowing, but yes. I _have_ been thinking,” Anna said. “And no, I won’t be telling you what I’ve been thinking about.”

“No need,” Loki said. “I know what you’ve been thinking about. You’ve been thinking about what I said earlier. And it’s only logical, really. You’re worrying about what will happen if he leaves you. You’re probably wondering now _if_ he’ll leave you.”

Anna didn’t dignify that with a response. She just shot Loki a cold stare.

Loki only laughed. “Oh, Agent Montrose,” he chided, with a shake of his head. “How could you possibly have survived this long in your law enforcement career? You’re positively transparent.”

“How so?” she challenged.

“The set of your jaw just now, the look in your eyes when I spoke. They both tell me that yes, you are indeed wondering if Agent Coulson really is going to leave you.”

“Phil won’t leave me until I’m rescued, at the very least,” Anna said. “And that’s what matters, that he keeps looking.”

“Only he’s not looking, is he?” Loki challenged. “It’s somebody else looking for you. He’s just sitting back and recovering from the concussion he no doubt has.”

“My point is, he won’t leave me until I’ve been found and rescued by whoever _is_ looking for me,” Anna said. “He wouldn’t hurt me that deeply.”

“Not by doing that, anyway,” Loki said, turning back to leave the room. “There are plenty of other ways he could hurt you equally deeply.”

“And I would prefer not to think of them, thank you,” Anna said sharply. “You’ve given me enough to think about already, so I don’t need any more of your oh so special help.”

Loki’s lips quirked up in the faintest of smiles. Even when tired and beseiged by doubt, Anna still had a spark of fire in her.

He liked that.

Not enough to leave her alone, true, but he liked it nonetheless. It would make things all the sweeter when he finally extinguished that last little bit of fire within her.

And only then would he allow her to be found.


	13. Chapter 13

Two days of searching had proved utterly fruitless for Clint and Natasha and had driven Coulson absolutely up the wall with worry. Much to everyone’s amusement -- or what might have been their amusement had it not been such a worrisome set of circumstances -- Coulson was going toe to toe with Fury over a certain aspect of the investigation that he particularly disagreed with.

“I want in on it, sir,” Coulson said calmly -- or rather, as calmly as he could manage.

“You’re too close to it, Agent Coulson,” Fury replied. “You can’t remain objective.”

“To hell with objectivity,” Coulson spat. “No progress has been made in finding Agent Montrose, so really, what’s one more pair of hands to the matter?”

Except it was one more pair of hands that belonged to a man who wouldn’t just sit behind a desk and run calculations and simulations and whatever else might help locate the missing woman. He’d be out there on the hunt and everybody knew it.

“I can’t allow it, Agent Coulson.” Fury looked at the man in front of him. “As much as she means to you… I still can’t allow it.”

“ _Please_?” Coulson asked, completely aware of just how much he was pleading and just as completely not giving a flying fuck about it.

Fury just studied the man for a long moment. He didn’t want to let any sentimentality creep into the matter, but it did hurt to see one of his best agents in such anguish over the matter. Because really, Fury wasn’t heartless. Just pragmatic.

But in this case… he supposed he could make an exception. To a certain degree, at least.

“Here’s how it’s going to go,” Fury said, fixing Coulson with a stern glance. “I’m going to allow you on this, but you are not to work on your own. It’s you and Agents Romanoff and Barton as a team. No going off on your own. Are we clear, Agent Coulson?”

Coulson nodded; he wasn’t going to argue. Not when Fury was giving in a little bit. If he argued, Fury might change his mind and that was the last thing Coulson wanted.

“Then get to work.”

Coulson turned to leave the room.

“And Phil?”

He turned back; Fury never used his first name. “Yes, sir?”

“I admit to not knowing Agent Montrose terribly well. I know her file -- I’ve had the chance to go over it the past two days -- but I don’t know her. Despite that, I feel confident in saying that she’ll fight as best she’s able.”

Coulson just prayed it was enough.

 

Anna dragged a hand through hair that had seen better days. She’d lost track of exactly how long she’d been there -- she thought it was on the third day, but she wouldn’t bet her paycheck on that -- but she knew that it was long enough to have some seriously nasty hair going on.

Not that she particularly _cared_ how it looked. She was just with it enough to realize that her hair was this side of repulsive.

Some dim, vague part of her realized that this apathy wasn’t a good sign. Most of her, however, just didn’t care.

She didn’t even glance up when the door opened. Why bother? It was just Loki again, come to taunt her further.

“You’re looking rather forlorn these days,” Loki drawled. “That’s almost a shame, really.”

She glanced up at that. “Almost?”

“If this wasn’t what I was trying for, or at least part of it, then I might actually feel a little bit of regret.” Complete lie.

Anna couldn’t bring herself to snort at that. “If you say so.”

Loki cocked his head, studied her thoughtfully, and spoke. “You know… I think I might actually like this better than my original plan,” he said. “I might actually be able to work with this even better.” And as annoying as he generally found it to have his plans change, how could he possibly argue with something that might serve his wants even better than the original idea?

“You’re not going to tell me what your new plan is, so why are you even bothering?” Anna asked, all hint of fire gone from her voice.

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong,” Loki said with a surprising gentleness to his voice. “I’m going to tell you exactly what it is.”

That caught her interest despite everything. “What is it, then?”

“Now, originally I wanted to lure the esteemed Agent Coulson in so I could kill him,” Loki said frankly, pacing the room as he spoke. “But now, I’m thinking that maybe, just maybe, it would be just as effective -- if not moreso -- to leave him alive to deal with the aftermath of the time you and I have spent together.”

“You make it sound like it was a weekend getaway.” Anna was surprised she’d managed that much snap and bite.

Loki snorted. “You’ve got enough spunk left to you to make it all the more tragic when your beloved Agent Coulson can’t figure out how to fix you.”

Anna shrugged. “You’re twisted, you know that?”

“It’s what I like about myself.” Loki just smirked.

 

Clint looked at Coulson. “Are you sure you want in on this?” he asked warily. “I know how personal this is to you.”

“If it was Natasha, you’d be insisting on being a part of things,” Coulson retorted.

Clint couldn’t argue that. “I had to ask, though,” he said. “Wouldn’t have felt right about it otherwise.”

“Fair enough,” Coulson said with a nod. “So tell me what we’ve got so far.”

“Pretty much a fat lot of nothing,” Clint admitted. “It’s like he doesn’t want her to be found.”

“He likely doesn’t,” Coulson said. “Because this is Loki and his plans are never straightforward.”

“No, they’re not,” Clint agreed with a shake of his head.

Natasha came into the room and stopped in her tracks. “Coulson…” She didn’t know what else to say. She wasn’t going to argue, but she also wasn’t sure this was the best idea.

“Relax, Natasha,” Coulson said. “Fury put limits on me. I’m not to go off on my own. It’s us as a team.”

Natasha considered that for a second. “Alright, then,” she said, a business-like tone to her voice. “Here’s what’s next. There’s one last place to check, one last place on the list we’ve been narrowing down the past few days. We’re going to go check that and then we’re going to start from the beginning.”

“Why do that?” Clint asked.

“Because if Loki’s hiding her, he could easily make it so that they can’t be found.” Natasha shrugged. “And it’s all we’ve got.”

Coulson unfortunately had to agree. “Let’s do what we have to do, then.”


	14. Chapter 14

They were at the last location less than twenty minutes later. Coulson was out of the car first, ignoring the ache in his chest. He couldn’t tell anymore what was his injury and what was the literal physical ache of worrying.

Despite the size of the building, they were able to clear it in a matter of minutes with all three of them going their separate directions -- they’d figured that this was a reasonable example of splitting up while working together. Fury couldn’t argue with this.

They had one last place to check, a room that generally served as an office of sorts. Clint opened the door, not wanting Coulson to have to face something unpleasant, just in case.

They didn’t find Anna. They did, however, find a very smug Loki perched on an abandoned desk.

“It took you long enough,” he said.

“Where is she?” Coulson demanded. “We’re tired of you, Loki. We just want her back.”

“Your concern for her is touching,” Loki said. “Rest assured, she’s alive. That’s all you need to know for now.”

That wasn’t as reassuring to Coulson as it should have been.

“Where is she, then?” Natasha asked. “We’ve already gone through an extensive list. We haven’t slept in two and a half days. We’re not in the mood to drag this out.”

“I can respect that,” Loki said. “You’ll have your hands full with Agent Montrose’s recovery.”

“Recovery?” Coulson arched an eyebrow, hiding his anger as best he could.

“She’s not in the best of conditions,” Loki said in a mock confiding tone. “But since I’m not a cruel man by nature -- ”

Clint stifled a snort. In addition to being inappropriate, it would probably provoke the crazy man. Not something they wanted or needed at the moment.

“ -- I’ll help you out a bit.” He grinned. “Try one of the very first places you crossed off. The one you looked at and immediately decided it wasn’t an option. The one you stood outside and hesitated at.”

Clint immediately knew which place Loki was talking about.

Coulson narrowed his eyes. “How do we know we can trust you?”

“You don’t.”

Any points Natasha might’ve given him for candor were lost in the face of the fact that he was insane at best. And they’d seen him at worst.

Coulson took a half step forward. “We need to do something about him.”

Unfortunately, before he or the other two could do or say anything else, Loki was gone in a simple flash of light and magic.

Coulson swore in a manner that was most unlike him; Clint and Natasha let it pass.

It was all they could do at the moment.

 

They reached the other building in a matter of minutes; they cleared it as quickly as possible given the size. No signs of Anna or Loki in the main part of the building, but that didn’t bother Coulson. There was still the office to check -- and that was where they’d find her, he had a feeling.

He was up the stairs to the office before anybody could stop him. And really, neither of the others would have even tried.

Coulson threw open the office door and was immediately concerned by the fact that Anna was in a heap on the floor.

“Anna?” He kept his voice soft as he approached her, forcing the worry away. She didn’t need to hear that, not after what she’d been through. Besides, she knew he cared. She knew he’d worry.

She lifted her head. “Phil?” she asked, sounding rather as though she couldn’t actually believe he was there.

“I’m here,” he soothed, reaching out to help her sit up. “I’m here and you’re safe now. We didn’t catch him, but you’re safe now and that’s the important part.” Dealing with Loki was important yes, and probably even more important than Anna’s safety, but he would acknowledge that after he was certain that Anna was alright.

She tried quirking a smile and didn’t quite make it. “You came.”

“I came,” he said, reaching out to run a hand over her hair. “Had to fight Fury to let me, but I didn’t care about that.”

Anna would have burst into tears if she had the energy and the give a damn; as it was, she had neither. And so she just slumped against Coulson, relaxing into his arms. Well, not relaxing so much as giving up.

Coulson pressed a kiss to Anna’s temple. “You’re going to be alright, Anna,” he promised. “I won’t stop until you’re alright.”

She wanted to believe him, she really did.

She just wasn’t sure if she _could_.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Hour of Separation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1034131) by [Nicky_Gabriel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicky_Gabriel/pseuds/Nicky_Gabriel)




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